[ad_1] A Simpsons mural dedicated to Holocaust victims in Italy has been vandalised in a suspected anti-Semitic attack. Created by Italian artist an
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A Simpsons mural dedicated to Holocaust victims in Italy has been vandalised in a suspected anti-Semitic attack.
Created by Italian artist and activist aleXsandro Palombo, Track 21, the Simpsons deported to Auschwitz depicts Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie as prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp.
The painting portrays the cartoon family in Auschwitz uniforms with yellow Stars of David on their chests – a badge Jewish people were forced to wear in order to identify them.
The poignant piece was painted onto the walls of the Shoah Memorial Museum in Milan.
It was unveiled on January 27, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Track 21, the Simpsons deported to Auschwitz was defaced with black paint and lines drawn across the characters, including covering up the Stars of David.
The incident occurred on Yom HaShoah, known as Holocaust Remembrance Day in English, when Israel commemorates the 6 million Jewish lives lost.
Speaking with Newsweek, Mr Palombo said the vandalists’ attempts to destroy the work and its message have “failed”.
“They failed. This strong anti-Semitic act highlights the danger of indifference, of oblivion and forces us to a visual stumble that reveals reality, hatred, racism, cruelty and prejudice towards Jews,” he told the outlet.
The museum is working with authorities to identify the vandals, using security cameras based above the mural.
“We will proceed in the next few days to verify the footage from the cameras trying to identify the person responsible,” the President of the Foundation Memorial of the Shoah in Milan, Roberto Jarach said in a statement.
“What worries us is to see in this act a possible revisionist and anti-Semitic tendency.
“What we hope is that the rest of the citizenry will respond with its opposite, with solidarity and empathy, demonstrating that the fight against indifference is the key to overcoming racist and anti-democratic tendencies.”
Mr Jarach added he hoped the artist would return to the mural to “fix” or “expand” the work.
Mr Palombo also painted a mural of The Simpsons before they were sent to a concentration camp, which was undamaged.
In the artwork, the characters are dressed in their everyday clothes and wearing the Star of David.
The painter previously described these works as “a visual stumble that forces us to see what we no longer see.”
“The most terrible things can become reality and art has the duty to remember them because it is a powerful antidote against oblivion,” he said.
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